HRM 15 HRM Human Resource Management Name of the Canadian Pharmacy Chain Shoppers Drug Mart

HRM 15 HRM Human Resource Management Name of the Company Studied: Shoppers Drug Mart Name of the Student in the Groups: Date of Submission: Author Note: Executive Summary: The aim of the report is to provide a review ofShoppers Drug Mart, a Canadian pharmacy chain located in Toronto, Ontario. The report also puts across a discussion into front line job profiles put across by the industry. Hiring Challenges: 8 Managerial Recommendations: 12 References: 15 Introduction: The report aims at

Running head: HRM
Human Resource Management
Name of the Company Studied: Shoppers Drug Mart
Name of the Student in the Groups:
Date of Submission:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Summary:
The aim of the report is to provide a review of Shoppers Drug Mart, a Canadian pharmacy
chain located in Toronto, Ontario. The discussions of the report focus around the operations of
the company in the Northern BC. The report also puts across a discussion into front line job
profiles put across by the industry. The study also focused on the job profiles of the
administrative or the support job available put forward by the company. The report also
discusses about the hiring challenges faced by the employers along with necessary
recommendations of overcoming it.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Key Findings and Observations:......................................................................................................4
A. Industry Information:..................................................................................................................4
B. Industry Front Line Jobs:............................................................................................................6
C. Industry Administrative or Support Jobs:...................................................................................7
D. Hiring Challenges:......................................................................................................................8
Managerial Recommendations:.....................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction:
The report aims at providing an overview of Shoppers Drug Mart, a Canadian pharmacy
chain located in Toronto, Ontario (shoppersdrugmart.ca 2019). The report primarily focuses on
the operations of the company in Northern BC. It is to be noted that pharmacies occupy an
integral role as one of the key sources of the pharmaceutical services within a community and is
considered as the providers of various care services including the monitoring and the screening
of the diseases like diabetes, hypertension, diabetes and osteoporosis. It also administers
vaccinations and provides the diagnostic aids, non prescription drugs and health care for home.
Besides, community pharmacy chains like Shoppers Drug Mart also prepares medications,
provides necessary consultations for the nursing home and the hospitals along with providing
services like medication management through adaptation, initialization and continued
prescriptions. It is thus vital for accessing whether the Canadians have immediate access to the
pharmacy locations. This is why the employer holds importance in the Northern BC
There are close to over 1300 stores operating under Shoppers Drug Mart in closer to nine
provinces and the two territories including Quebec. This pharmacy chain was introduced by
Murray Koffler, the owner of Super-Pharm pharmacy in Poland. In the year 2013, the company
was acquired by the Loblaw Companies for close to $12.4 billion (Marotte, 2013). However, by
the year 2016, the shoppers were able to find close to 1300 locations across Canada
(corporate.shoppersdrugmart.ca, 2019).
In the year 1968, Shoppers Drug Mart expanded to about fifty stores in Ontario by
merging with close to 33 drugstores. In the year 1971, the pharmacy chain purchased closer to 87
Cunningham Stores in Alberta and British Columbia. Shoppers Drug Mart can not only be found

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in Northern BC but also in the other parts of the BC. The stores are located in Kamloops, BC;
William Lake, BC; Prince George, BC, Smithers, BC and Prince Rupert. In the Northern BC its
headquarters are located in Smithers (careers.shoppersdrugmart.ca, 2019). Nevertheless, the most
prominent competitor of the Shoppers Drug Mart in the Northern BC region is London Drugs
found in the year 1945 and located in Richmond, British Columbia (BC). London Drugs have
been found to generate closer to $2.5B lesser revenue compared to the Shoppers Drug Mart.
The report also provides an insight into the front line jobs of the industry along with an
overview on the support or the administrative jobs available in the industry. The report also puts
across discussion on the hiring and its challenges that the employers experience and the ways
they adopt in overcoming them.
Key Findings and Observations:
A. Industry Information:
The pharmaceutical industry both at the Canadian and global levels experiences major
challenges as well as changes over the past (Rehman et al., 2015). The growth trend of the global
market is experiencing a downward trend with the present pace remaining below average. The
slower trend has been noteworthy in addition to the stark contrast that makes for the overall
growth. Developed markets like North America and Europe experiences expansion at rates lower
than 3 percent while the emerging markets puts across a double digit growth figures. The
contrast in the growth have forced various globalized Multinational Enterprise (MNE) in
focusing the efforts and the investments towards the emerging countries with higher growth that

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would make it highly competitive for the MNEs for increasing or maintaining the investment in
Canada.
As the age of the larger primary care blockbuster draws towards a close from patent cliff,
pharmaceutical companies are adopting and re-organizing strategies for reducing risk and
overcoming the external factors and their poor productivity (Schuhmacher et al., 2013). The
strategies included adoption of newer business models built around the external networks and the
partnerships of third party focused on the development and the medical research. This particular
trend towards the business model relies on the outsourcing of the business functions including
the manufacturing which provides growth opportunities to the contract service providers.
One of the key issues moving forward has been the ability of the Canadian companies in
successfully competing with the other countries on the various factors that included talent, cost
and attractiveness of the market (Lexchin & Gagnon, 2014). The growing dominance and the
evolution of the biologics along with the desire of MNE in improving the pipeline productivity
implied that the biopharma SME in Canada have the opportunity of flourishing. Adequate access
to the capital has profound impact on how the biopharma SMEs would compete and thrive in
future years. The recent trends of the pharmaceutical industry in Canada has been challenged
with poorer growth expert and the pressures of the global competition there still remains viable
industry which have been aided by the stronger support of the industry which can successfully
compete and flourish in the new and competitive business environment on the global scale. The
country had the opportunity of being the global leader in newer growth areas.
In this regard, it can be said that Shoppers Drug Mart has conveniently located stores of
owned and operated by the associated licensed owners of the company who has helped in

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building the brand synonymous with the exceptional trust, value and service
(shoppersdrugmart.ca , 2019). The company also owns over 49 clinic pharmacies that operates in
the name of Shoppers Simply Pharmacy along with five luxury destinations operating under the
name Murale.
The pharmacy chain has successfully leveraged the leadership position in the pharmacy
and the convenient stores for capturing significant share in the market in regard to front store
merchandize including over counter medications, beauty and health aids, fragrances , household
essentials and seasonal products and essential of the everyday households. The company also
operates and owns close to 56 stores which remain engaged in sales and services of the assisted
device, home care product, medical equipment and durable mobility of the equipment to the
retail and the institutional customers (careers.shoppersdrugmart.ca, 2019).
B. Industry Front Line Jobs:
In Canada, there are closer to 31,000 licensed pharmacists of which 80 percent works in
close to over 7000 community pharmacies (Leong et al., 2016). The annual salary for the
Canadian pharmacist stood at approximately C $ 45 (payscale.com, 2019). However, the
government of Canada has made suitable grants for encouraging the community pharmacist in
moving to the remote locations. The demand for the community pharmacists not only exceeded
the supply but also revealed that close to 40 percent of the registered pharmacist of Canada
qualified from United States.
According to Tuteja et al. (2013), it has been found that there has been an expansion in
the role of the pharmacists in the recent times and the community pharmacist of Canada
increasingly gets involved in putting across a wider range of the other services that are being

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funded by the government. These includes weight management, cessation of smoking, palliative
care and anticoagulant clinics. The situation regarding the pharmacist prescribing widely varies
between the Canadian provinces.
In this context, as far as the availability of the frontline jobs of Shoppers Drug Mart is
concerned, the company offers varied pharmacy and retail options. The company has a job
opening for the post of associate owner who also works for the local business. Each of the stores
has an associate owner where recruited employees can work for local business while
experiencing the support of the national brand. The company also has a job opening for the post
of pharmacist who can works for the local business and acts as the cornerstone for operating a
drug store. The other front line jobs offering put across by Shoppers Drug Mart include front
store supervisor, merchandiser, pharmacy assistant, post office clerk, beauty boutique expert,
receiver and cosmetician.
C. Industry Administrative or Support Jobs:
Administrative or Support Jobs represents job roles that provide support to the company
(Goffee & Scase, 2015). This support includes office management, answering the phone calls,
speaking with the clients, providing assistance to the employer, clerical work that includes the
maintenance of the records or entering of data and various other tasks. However, administration
refers to a broader category with various administrative job titles. Some of the titles like the
administrative assistant and program administrator refer to the jobs with similar duties although
some of the job titles describe different kinds of jobs (Kadushin & Harkness, 2014).
In this regard, the administrative or the support jobs put across by the Shoppers Drug
Mart includes category director, coordinator and senior coordinator, merchandiser, pharmacy

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assistant, brand manager, operations development, specialist, operations, cashier, cosmetician,
field case manager, pharmacy roll out specialist, senior analyst, senior specialist, quality
assurance, crew associate, front store supervisor, front store manager, health service coordinator
and patient care specialist(careers.shoppersdrugmart.ca, 2019).
D. Hiring Challenges:
The influence of the strong economy is encouraging the companies to expand however
this has led to shortages in the skilled talent thereby making it difficult to find. Forecasts
predicted that lower rate of unemployment and higher level of job creation has resulted in fewer
candidates for increased number of jobs. In this regard, it can be said that the healthcare industry
have always operated under pressure since the work relates to the health and the well being of
the employees. Thus, it can be said that the professionals in the healthcare deals with enhanced
level of stress compared to the other professions. The current trend however indicates an increase
in pressure.
From the smaller rural pharmacy to the bigger ones, the human resource manager
responsible for the healthcare also feels the pressure (Cascio, 2015). These professionals are
believed to face bigger issues like the shortages of staffing and employee burnout. Nevertheless,
for overcoming the hurdle, the HR professionals needed to understand the why and the how
behind one another. Some of the hiring challenges include (cphrab.ca, 2019):
A. Challenge 1: Rise in the Level of Hiring
In the year 2017, Canada accounted for 423,000 jobs thereby closing the year with the
lowest unemployment rate of the country since the year 1976 and this trend is believed to
continue in this particular year (Deboosere & El-Geneidy, 2018). The hot jobs in the growing

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sectors like marketing, finance and healthcare witnessed unemployment rate lower than 2
percent. The challenge lay in the shrinking pool of the talent in the market. There exists number
of factors that contributes to the problem. Firstly, as the members of generation belonging to the
baby boomers continue to age, the huge numbers are believed to create considerable level of
work load for the existing professionals. Besides, the limited capacities of the healthcare
expertise imply that there is not enough supply in meeting the growing demand. The shortage has
made the employers desperate for differentiating themselves and in the process attracts the
prospective employees. This issue gets exacerbated by shifting towards millennial workforce
whose priorities have been different from the predecessors. Unlike the generations of the baby
boomers, the Gen X or the millennial values the opportunities and benefits more in comparison
to the predecessors. This implied that employers looking forward towards hiring next batches of
the medical professionals required making the required challenges for appealing to the younger
candidates. Otherwise, the shrinking pool of the talent leads to an increasingly competitive
market for recruitment.
B. Challenge 2: Intense Competition for Hiring the Right Talent
Plenty of fewer applicants and opportunities, the ideal candidates often get ample offers
for jobs (Abdul-Jalal, Toulson & Tweed, 2013). In order to convince such people for joining the
firm there is a need for showcasing the unique offers in comparison to the competitors. Some of
the top priorities of the candidates include options for work life balance, attractive pay and
satisfying experience in relation to job.
C. Challenge 3: Higher Turnover of the Employees:

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The demand for the skilled talents reported that closer to 46 percent of the employees
considers leaving the company for a better option even though they are not actively involved in
the job hunt (Ertas, 2015). Particularly at a time when the recruitment becomes tough as well as
costly and time consuming, every effort should be made for limiting the vacancies.
Here, it is to be noted that in addition to the hiring shortages, the various pharmacies and
clinics have been struggling for retaining the existing staff members. With various jobs open to
the medical professionals it is not too easy for the staffs to leave if they remain dissatisfied or
unhappy. In the last couple of years, the turnover rate of the pharmaceutical industry has risen
upwards. In the year, 2018, the healthcare industry experienced highest rate of turnover over the
decade and since the 2014, an average turned rate of the healthcare industry is over 87.8 % of the
total workforce (nsinursingsolutions.com, 2019). The higher rates of turnover are costing
millions to the concerned industry. This however happens for various reasons. Likewise, as
mentioned earlier millennial expects more than the paycheck which includes career
advancement, training and a greater benefit program. When they do not receive them they make
a better choice by leaving the company.
The HR responsible for the pharmaceutical industry can ensure in retaining the
employees by addressing the changed demand thereby making the organization increasingly
attractive to the current employees and ensure flourishing of the employee-supervisor
relationship.
D. Challenge 4: Burnout of Employees
Employee burnout is often tangled with issues of turnover and the staff shortages.
Burnout is mostly caused due to the shortage of staffs and it has compounding effect on the

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employee turnover (Lin, 2013). Besides, the burnout also has negative impact on both the patient
safety and care since the mental, emotional and the physical exhaustion reduces the performance
of the practitioners. A survey conducted recently has estimated the burnout rate of the healthcare
employee to vary between 50 to 70 percent (Kraft, 2014).Patients are also able to visualize the
impact of the employee burnout by reporting lower rate of satisfaction in the facilities that has
higher rate of burnout. The decreased level of satisfaction results in emotional distance. Besides,
employee burnout leads to the creation of disconnection between the patients and the providers
who develop cynical, unfriendly and lower level of empathetic attitude.
However, the few factors that contribute to the burnout of the employees include feeling
of under appreciation, under utilization and the lack of authority. There are times when the
healthcare employees’ feels that they could do more but are often not allowed. It is the workload
that has a connection with the burnout rates. A survey conducted found that close to 90 percent
of the healthcare employees does not have enough time for properly comforting and caring for
the patients. In other words, it is basically a complicated problem with dreadful consequences.
Hence, the HR professionals in the healthcare industry needed to be aware of the impacts
of the work load and the under supported staffs belonging to patient care.
C. Challenge 4: Deficiency of Skilled Candidate
It is necessary for the healthcare employers to wait if there is a lack of skilled candidate
since there are chances that it might get worse. Hiring seems to be a challenging aspect in the
fast growing sectors like healthcare and Pharmaceutical business.
D. Challenge 5: Lack of Proper Training and Development

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It is to be noted that providing thee employees with the career opportunities as per his
desire is not only costly but the cost of training and development is quite higher. Training the
employees’ represents a good investment since it helps in paying the dividends at other end in
both retaining the employees and increasing their capability (Mohammad, 2013). With the
emergence of the internet ready devices saturating the hospitals, workplace and the clinics have
begun to shift towards the digital system for not only tracking the patient charts and workflow
management but entertaining and educating patients. Although it is good news but the challenge
with each system lies in the learning curve and it necessitates the requirement of training for
using them. Usage of such systems requires support from the management for motivating the
employees meant for using them.
The HR professionals require awareness that such systems are becoming highly prolific
in industry. It is also vital to note that the functional roles of human resource department in the
healthcare industry require the implementation of the newer training with the organization.
Managerial Recommendations:
The intensification of the hiring challenges is an important aspect that needs to be
overcome. Here are certain managerial recommendations that can be adopted for securing the top
talent.
1. Recognition for Compensation: It is a known fact that a good salary along with a
benefit package puts employees at an advantage. It is therefore recommended that the
management of a company should check the starting salaries within the industry for ensuring that
the pay remains competitive. The manager should also consider the non monetary incentives that

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would help them in maintaining a work life balance like allowing the employees with
telecommuting opportunities and flexible hours that would help in attracting the applicants
(Andersson & Evers, 2015).
2. By Putting the Best Step Forward: It is important for the management to know their
strengths thereby making sure that the company culture remains central to the hiring strategy
(Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014). A company that offers a combination of enticing perks, a
commitment towards the social responsibility and the track record for innovation is believed to
become appealing to the good candidates. A recent survey has however found that close to 87
percent of the employees believes that it is vital for considering the reputation of the company
for evaluation and innovation of a potential employer.
3. By Working in Coordination: Hiring the appropriate person acts pivotal when there
is scarcity of the skilled professionals and the companies are not able to afford the cost. Hence,
working with staffing agency might solve the challenges of recruitment including the finding of
good fit for the first time (Bruns, 2013). In fact a reputed staffing firm particularly the one
specializing in the field whenever looking for the candidates can significantly helps since it
provides a wider access to the job seekers.
4. By looking for Perfect Candidate: The management should understand that given the
smaller pool of the available talent it has to be understood that every applicant will not possess
all the technical and the soft skills and the appropriate experience desired. Instead, it is vital to
consider hiring the individuals who shows the potential and ability of learning quickly then
undertaking means of creating learning opportunities and professional development for gradually
bringing them at par with the speed.

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5. By adopting means for Employee Retention: The management should ensure that
the employees remain satisfied in the job through the creation of supportive and positive work
environment (Milman & Dickson, 2014). The management can however adopt the following
means to retain the employees:
 By offering more vacation
 By focusing on the appreciation of the employees
 By promoting the professional development
 Ensuring that the staffs are involved personally for the achievement of the career
targets.
It is to be noted that the recruitment space is changing and therefore keeping up with the
new trends and developments allows the management in increasing the reach, targeting the
search and bringing in the professionals who acted as the good fit for the company’s culture.
Besides, using the tech tools such as the tracking system of the applicant and the non tech
techniques like the referral programs of employees can help the management in making a better
choice.

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